Why Japan will lift your spiritsIt’s been another miserable week. Not only has there been more horrible news on housing (volumes at 30-year lows and so on), and more bad news on inflation, but it is getting close to impossible for anyone to pretend that Britain – as Gordon Brown continues to insist – is in any way ‘resilient’.

Unemployment ticked up to 5.3% in the three months to April, making a huge 1.68 million Britons officially unemployed. That number will be higher when we get to the end of the next few months – just think of the layoffs taking place at house­builders and estate agents across the country. And just to add to the worries of the average consumer, mortgage rates are still on the up. Bank of England figures show that the cost of a five-year, fixed-rate deal is now at its highest for eight years.